Posts Tagged ‘Redshirt’

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Some of my favourite people in the world have been bartenders. I mean, I didn’t speak to many of them for more than ten minutes, and I know how it works – I used to tend bar too – you flirt for tips and for kicks. But a bartender has an uncanny way of being able to flip a switch in you. Not just with their sticky fluids, but also with their damn fine smiles, the ability to pay you attention for just those five minutes you want to order a drink after work. Sometimes you can make up stories about them, that the smile was really because you are the most handsome thing in the world, and they are going to Tom-Cruise-in-Cocktail you after their shift.

But ah, being the bartender. It’s a different sort of thing all together. It’s a real performance.

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Redshirt‘s Spacebook sounds like the perfect idea: it’s a life sim which uses a social network as a metaphor through which to convey each character’s personal data and stats. The jokes write themselves. Add a Star Trek-like space station as the setting and you can almost see each element of the game’s design spooling out in front of you.

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Stardate -309131.9634703195 (or so a random website tells me it is): a videogame is released, on the internet. I think Oor Graham plans to bring you An Opinion on social networking meets Star Trek comedy game Redshirt a little further down the line, but according to the Captain’s Log (my RPS inbox full’o’press releases) The Tiniest Shark-developed, Positech-published sci-fi, turn-based management sim has made itself available for purchase as of this very day. Disaster-strewn social ladder-climbing within the confines of a starship also puts me in mind of Red Dwarf at its most well-grounded, which is a good thing. I do hope there’s a Gazpacho Soup achievement.Read the rest of this entry »

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Given there’s nothing I hate more than my friends and the things they think, social media has an odd place in my heart. It ensures I’m invited to parties where I can refill my body with vital fluids and praise the gods of dance in my own way. But it also means I have to read people’s opinions, look at pictures of their grandmothers and painstakingly plan their deaths. There’s no win condition, just an endless grind. What I need is a life with an end to it, a goal I can strive to and easy ways to beat my enemies there. What I need is Redshirt.

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Redshirt is the upcoming sci-fi, social network satire, in which the only way to avoid a bitter end is to earn promotion, either through talent or tact. Following an enlightening conversation with designer Mitu Khandaker, I was keen to try the game. And now I have. I’ve spent a few days attempting to survive in the world of friend requests, status ‘likes’ and careful time management. I’ve made friends, I’ve romanced lovers and I’ve met my maker. Several times.

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All good things must come to an end. Weekends, guitar solos, and – yes – even seemingly unendingconversations with a panel of thoughtful game developers. It is nature’s way. And so we reach the third and final part of my chat with Obsidian’s Chris Avellone, Dreamfall’s Ragnar Tornquist, Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail, Introversion’s Chris Delay, and Redshirt’s Mitu Khandaker. This time we discuss clones, competition, diversity, and the future of PC gaming. Also, Ragnar dies horribly. Or maybe he leaves in the middle. I forget. Either way, READ ON OR REGRET FOREVER.

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Redshirt is a game about being the person who is doomed from the very moment they put their uniform on. Taking place on a space station with a crew who spend a great deal of their lives on the social network, Spacebook, it asks the player to navigate a possible quagmire of relationships and workload while trying to earn the promotions that might keep them alive. Earlier this week, I spoke to the game’s lone developer, Mitu Khandaker, and discussed dynamic personality generation, incorporating social issues into games and ranting at GDC.